Quaint Urban Home Gets a Grown-Up Modern Extension

By Delana

This existing family home in Stavanger, Norway needed to grow to accommodate the expanding family within – but city building authorities had some word in the expansion.

Their stipulation: the family could extend the home beyond the original boundaries, but the addition had to add a modern aesthetic to the neighborhood. Rever & Drage Architects took on the project and created something simply lovely.

The extension was achieved by creating a new volume that is separated from but connected to the main home. The addition houses a bathroom and the home’s main entrance, freeing up space in the larger main home.

The living room is on the ground level of the larger volume, and the two bedrooms manifest as small structures hanging from above. They are accessed by a winding staircase and glass platform, which also gives access to the roof terrace via glass stairs.

It is the terrace that both divides and unites the structure visually. A shared outdoor space that can be accessed from either side of the home, the small outdoor space is warm and inviting.

Looking at the home from certain angles gives the illusion that the smaller, darker extension has simply been pulled out of the main house – kind of like the expanding dollhouses many of us had as children.

The main home’s roof shape and angle were echoed in the extension, making it appear as one cohesive unit, but the darker color of the extension helps to separate the new addition and create visual interest.